Episode 23 The Box

Across the country, lots of us are working out what to cook

tonight from the ingredients in our cupboards.

To inspire you with throwing away the cookbooks

and going back to basics...

..we're pitting three resourceful and creative home cooks

against one another to see what they can come up with.

Whoever does it best will be our cook of the day.

Ready to prove that they can think on their feet

are today's three cooks.

Amanda from Plymouth, who wouldn't let you go hungry.

I'm a feeder. In our family, food is love.

If I can invite someone over

and then send them home feeling full and happy, that makes me very happy.

Anna from Carlisle has a passion for spicy food.

-I just enjoy chillies really.

-GIGGLES

And Will from Bristol, who is in charge of all the cooking at home.

My wife's a good gardener and a good eater,

and I've got two kids, so that keeps you on your toes as well.

First, they'll be cooking from a box of ingredients

chosen by today's guest, actor Brian Capron,

who played one of Coronation Street's most notorious baddies.

-Brian.

-Hello, James.

-Welcome to The Box.

-Oh, lovely.

Obviously you're a great actor, but pretty good in the kitchen, I hear!

-Is that right?

-Well, not bad.

It was very exciting doing MasterChef, and I managed to get

through to be one of the finalists, so my wife was absolutely thrilled!

-So, now you have to do the cooking all the time?

-Yeah, yeah.

So, how did you go about choosing the ingredients for what's in here?

Well, I just thought - all of the things that I love...

Let's have a look. So, why sea bass for you, then?

I particularly like sea bass when it's a nice little fillet,

as you can crisp the skin up nicely.

You obviously like your seasonal ingredients because you've got

things like Jersey Royal potatoes and some wild garlic in there.

It's just got a lovely flavour.

So, we're going to send you off to a darkened room. We'll see you in about 50 minutes.

-You can watch it unfold in front of you.

-Wonderful.

-And then, you get to taste it.

-Brilliant.

-See you in a bit.

-See you later.

OK, guys. Welcome to The Box.

You're all here because, apparently, you're all creative

-and inventive in the kitchen, is that right?

-Yes.

Now, in front of you is a box of ingredients that's been picked

by our special guest, who is watching your every move.

Now, what they want is one dish at the end of this.

It could be sweet, it could be savoury.

You don't have to use all the ingredients in the box,

so you've got 50 minutes to try and impress us. Are you ready?

Open your box, off you go.

I've got sea bass, clams, chorizo... I love chorizo.

It just gives everything a bit of a lift and a little bit of a punch.

Baby broad beans, runner beans and Jersey potatoes.

And I've got basil and wild garlic.

It's a very subtle flavour and it gives a nice texture to things,

so I'm wild about wild garlic!

Some lovely calvados brandy, lime and mascarpone.

Mascarpone, the best thing about it is it's so delicious

and it's just got a lovely texture with it.

Our cooks can use whatever they want from our store cupboard,

which is packed with the ingredients many of us will have at home.

Great selection of ingredients from the clams to the sea bass,

the Jersey Royals, the wild garlic...

All of which go fantastically well together.

These are farmed bass, which are slightly smaller

and because of that, rather than fillet them,

as the fillets are quite thin, I would leave it whole.

Just keep it really, really simple, but fantastically tasty.

It doesn't look as though any of them are going to fillet it, does it?

So, my idea of crisping it up has gone out the window!

-Right, Anna. How are you doing?

-Hello. I'm doing OK.

-You're doing OK?

-I think so. Yeah.

-Do you know what you're cooking yet, or not?

I'm going to do a sort of stew thing, I suppose.

I'm going to put some chorizo in, I've got the clams over there,

broad beans, some of these as well. Some of this.

-Do you know what this is?

-Kind of spinachy, I think.

I'm surprised that some of them don't know what the wild garlic is.

-Taste it.

-I've tasted it.

-Does it taste like spinach?

-No. Not really.

-It's wild garlic.

-Oh! OK.

I've already got garlic in. I won't put too much of that in.

-You put it in at the end. It's fantastic in at the end.

-Yeah.

-Are we going to use this sea bass?

-No.

-No?!

-I don't think she's... Is she not going to use the fish?

That's quite a surprise.

I just can't cook that.

-What do you mean you can't cook it?

-I've never cooked a whole fish.

HE CHUCKLES

Do you want me to show you something?

-I could do it and then you can decide...

-Oh, OK. Yeah. That sounds reasonable.

-You can ignore me totally, which most people do.

-No, I'll give you something to do.

-Oh, thanks(!)

-Cheers, all right.

-SHE GIGGLES

Right. Well, I'm going to show you how to salt bake sea bass.

'Firstly start by separating some eggs

'and simply whisk up the whites and mix in loads of sea salt.'

And then you just pop this on the tray.

-Ooh.

-Place the fish on, like that. Take the topping...

Press this all down. So, this is salt baking.

A fantastic way to cook whole fish.

And then what happens, when you bake this, this crust goes hard.

I've never seen this before, with the egg whites and salt.

I've never heard of it.

-So, that's going to take about 30 minutes to cook in there.

-OK.

-30 minutes?

-And what you do is you break off the salt, open it up and then you take

the flesh underneath it and you have this amazing fresh, moist sea bass.

-Good idea.

-I'll disappear off.

SHE LAUGHS

The salt will flavour the fish, but that's what you want,

but you don't have to add anything else in it.

You could put a little bit of thyme or rosemary into the salt as well.

And then when you break open the salt it's lovely and delicate in the middle.

'Will is also cooking the sea bass whole.'

Will's taken the fish and just basically stuffed it

with a few bits of lemon, some herbs,

and then throw it in the oven, wrapped in tinfoil.

It's cooked en papillote.

Now, the problem is, with bass like that,

because it's quite small, you really want to roast it open,

as in, don't wrap it up if you want a crispy skin over the top.

Make sure the oven's really, really hot

cos it's going to be in there for only about 18-20 minutes.

Now, I see you've got the fish wrapped up there.

I might, if there's time at the end, open it up so that it gets

a bit more colour, maybe grill the top of it once it's cooked a bit.

Now, you cook a lot at home? You've got two little ones at home?

Yeah, I've got two little ones, so it's quite a novelty

cooking without a two-year-old on your ankles asking for her dinner!

You grow a lot of your own stuff at home, is that right?

Well, I don't but my wife is the gardener.

The kids must love that as well, don't they?

-Yeah, well, they're very good at snail hunting.

-Snail hunting?

Snail hunting. Yeah.

You need snail hunters when you grow your own food.

It's a nightmare.

So we're going to use the broad beans as well?

Not if I'm using the green beans, I don't think.

She'd have to double pod these, you see?

You get these wonderful green beans out of them.

I'm not sure that time and nerves will allow me to here, James.

You're too nervous to peel a bean?!

HE LAUGHS

-Or do you want me to peel them all?

-No, it's OK.

-I'm quite happy, standing here...

If you want to do it, just knock yourself out,

but I may not use them, even.

You find it therapeutic?

I could just create a dish all on my own here!

Will's lost a point, though, as far as I'm concerned

for not using the broad beans because

baby broad beans, I think, are one of the most delicious things.

And they've got a nice texture.

-And you've got the chorizo and tomatoes in there?

-Yeah.

Bit of garlic?

Yeah, a bit of garlic and onion in there as well, a bit of the red wine.

I'm debating about whether or not

that might keep the chef going as well. But...

JAMES LAUGHS

..it's open. It'd be rude not to!

Amanda's also decided to cook the sea bass en papillote.

That is an amazing bit of wrapping, I've got to say.

I had a bit of a panic about the wrapping.

-Do you wrap your Christmas presents like that at home?

-No.

-Right.

-No.

So I'm going to bake that in the oven, and then,

I've already prepped, but I'm going to do, like, a sauce

style with the clams and tomato

and a bit of wild garlic in there already.

And then I've got some more that I'll chuck in at the end.

I'm really glad someone's using the wild garlic

because that's a really special ingredient.

It'll just give it something a bit different.

-How many are you cooking for?

-I like to cook for big groups.

-So I'm feeding everyone, everyone!

-Big groups? Coachload, is that!

-Yeah. I won't put it all on the plate, I promise.

-All right. OK.

HE LAUGHS

I've got some chorizo in with the potatoes cooking at the minute

that I'll chuck into the sauce at the end.

That's a really nice idea

cos the oil from the chorizo will give the potatoes such a lift.

I'm watching this and I'm thinking, "Mm. Ooh! They're nice ingredients!"

HE LAUGHS

So all three cooks are using Brian's favourite ingredients

in a similar way but which dish will impress him the most?

I'll be interested to see how they dish up the actual fish

and make it look appetising with everything else.

It's quite tricky, isn't it?

Five minutes left, guys. Five minutes!

Time to check if my salt crust has worked its magic on Anna's sea bass.

Oh-ho ho-ho-hoo!

Mm-mm-mm!

You break this off.

And what you end up with is this amazing flesh underneath.

Now, I'm going to get you to taste this.

That's really nice. Yummy!

Do you want to use it or can I take it away?

Yeah, I do. I'll put it on top of my ragu.

-Nice and crispy.

-You think the people of Jersey will be happy with these?

-Hopefully, they taste good, so I'd be happy.

-Taste good.

That looks good, doesn't it?

-I think the fish is OK but the tail fell off a bit.

-The tail fell off?!

I'm really looking forward to meeting them

and I'm really looking forward to the taste

cos I think, in the end, Anna's is looking great now.

OK. Time's up. Stop cooking.

OK, well done, guys, but you're probably intrigued to know

who put that box of ingredients together.

Well, I can now tell you that he was a big star in Coronation Street,

but more recently you may have seen him

as one of the finalists on Celebrity MasterChef.

It's a certain Brian Capron.

Brian, welcome back. How was the little room?

Well, it's great not to be on the other side!

THEY LAUGH

I know what it's like under that pressure.

So what do you think of everybody's dishes on the whole?

Well, I think they did really well and I thought they were all

quite calm and cool about it, you know, which I was impressed by.

Right. Well, first of all, what did you cook, then?

A sea bass baked in a salt crust, served on a bed of chorizo

-and clam ragu.

-Looks lovely.

-No crispy skin but dive in.

Tell us what you think.

The sea bass is delicious.

Um...

I love the idea of the ragu and how it's placed on there.

Got a nice little punch to it.

The chorizo is a bit overpowering,

but all round it goes well with the sea bass, I think.

But, yeah, pretty good.

You've got nice flavours in there. The sea bass, to me...

I love salt-baked sea bass. I'm so glad you used it.

-Great-tasting plate of food. Well done.

-Thank you.

Now, what did we do? The tail fell off!

The tail fell off but, you know, you can't have everything!

What did you do?

I baked the fish, I've done a chorizo ragu,

some sauteed potatoes

and some blanched green beans with it.

I like the little garnish there with the garlic flowers.

-Brian, what do you think?

-I think that fish is cooked very well.

The chorizo ragu tastes very nice.

Nice balanced flavours there, I think.

Well, first of all, the fish, fantastically cooked.

-And then the beans, little bit longer for me for the beans.

-Really?

-OK.

-They're a little bit crunchy for me.

You've certainly got the right flavour with the chorizo

and the tomatoes. It's fantastic.

-Really well cooked on the fish as well.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Cheers.

Right, Amanda. What did you make?

I did baked sea bass with a tomato, chorizo and clam sauce

and then roasted potatoes with some chorizo as well.

The fish is cooked really nicely. Tastes lovely.

The stew kind of works, really, with the clams.

-You've just created a lot of it.

-Yeah.

So I just think less of it

and you get a more intense flavour of the clams.

That would be really nice.

But, on the whole, the fish is really the prize of this

and it's perfectly cooked.

Good effort.

Now, it's your choice which dish you like the most,

so what would you go back for more of?

The actual sea bass, everybody did brilliantly.

But I picked Will's dish, purely on taste.

I loved that little bit of flavour that you got in there with

the sauce, and maybe the lemon gave it a nice lift

and the nice balanced ragu that went with it beautifully.

Well done, Will.

OK, then. Round two.

In front of me are three boxes of ingredients

I've gone out shopping for.

We've got a global box...

..a vegetarian box...

..and a pudding box.

Now, Will, because you cooked Brian's favourite dish,

you get the power to choose not only what you'll be cooking with

but what your fellow competitors will be cooking with.

So, first of all, pick a box for Anna.

-I think I'll go for the global box for Anna.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-You sound quite pleased with that?

-Yes, I think so.

-OK.

That leaves Amanda. Two boxes left.

I'm not that good with puddings,

so I'm going to give Amanda the pudding box.

-Yes, you're happy with that?

-Yes.

-That was a little "yes"!

-Yes.

Which means, Will, surprisingly, you've got the vegetarian box

and it leaves all three of you just 50 minutes to create a dish

to impress me this time because I get to choose today's

Cook of the Day based on what you're producing now.

50 minutes.

Good luck. Collect your boxes.

-So, Brian, do you fancy having a go at this?

-No!

-Why not?

They're all difficult! It's quite challenging.

In 50 minutes, it's a big challenge.

Anna's got the global box which, today, has a French theme.

Inside, it's got a duck leg, tinned snails, petits pois,

Herbes de Provence, Camembert, apples, puff pastry,

lavender, lardons and a potato.

-Now, have you ever cooked French food before?

-Um...

No, I don't think so. Maybe a coq au vin, like, years ago.

My husband doesn't really like French food!

Where's my tin of amazing escargots or snails?

Aren't these the most attractive thing in the world? Taste.

SHE LAUGHS

-Now, what are you going to do with the duck?

-Pan-fry it with...

Pan-fried duck?

The classic thing with duck would be to do a duck confit with the duck leg.

-Yeah, is that in fat?

-But you need to salt it first.

However, you can do a similar sort of thing.

-If you take the duck, like that.

-Yeah.

Normally, you would do this with duck fat.

But you can get away with a similar sort of thing.

We've got some garlic, lovely, thank you very much.

Garlic crushed, throw that in.

And, basically, you're just going to poach this for about 35-40 minutes

-and you're going to roast it in the oven with some honey.

-OK.

-Are you going to do anything else with it?

-I'm going to try and make a kind of apple tart thing.

-OK.

So, are you feeling more confident now?

Yes, I'm feeling much more confident.

SHE GIGGLES

Anna is doing a variant on a duck confit dish that I had in mind, really.

I would definitely use the snails, and the snails together

with the potatoes and those lovely crispy lardons

work fantastically well with the crispy duck confit,

and then the apples,

I would do a wonderful little apple tarte tatin to go with it.

'Will chose the vegetarian box for himself,

'which contains chickpeas, tahini sauce,

'an aubergine, cherry tomatoes, a pomegranate, Greek yoghurt,

'halloumi cheese, mint and rocket leaves.'

Why the vegetarian box, then?

I'm rubbish at puddings

and I thought that was too much of a gamble.

I mean, I've got a vegetable garden out of the back of my house,

I try and eat vegetarian food a couple of times a week, so this is perfect.

Why do you cook vegetarian food a couple of times a week then?

Economy, you know, save on meat.

Rather than eat substandard meat all the time, eat some better meat,

but fewer times in a week.

So what kind of veg are you producing in the garden?

The wife is - spinach, kale...

We're lucky enough to have a greenhouse...

-Do you do courgettes? They go mad.

-They go mental.

They're the easiest things to grow, aren't they?

I never understand why anyone buys courgettes in supermarkets.

You can ask any gardener and they'll go, "PLEASE take some courgettes!

-"Have a bag!"

-They just grow on their own.

So what are we up to?

There's some tahini in there so I'm going to make hummus.

I love halloumi cheese as well so I'm going to grill that.

I'm roasting the aubergines and the cherry tomatoes

with some onion and garlic in there.

I'm making like a tortilla as well.

Right, a tortilla/flatbready sort of thing?

Yeah, hopefully that'll come off in the time.

The key to this really is getting textures into this.

Well, halloumi is just a simple cheese, really.

Marinating it beforehand does really help.

You can use a combination of spices, like a little bit of chilli,

some lemon or lime, a little bit of oil, and then just basically

very, very quickly get that char-grill really hot

and place it in there and generally leave it.

You don't want to overcook it, otherwise it can go quite rubbery,

but you've just got to make sure it's nice and char-grilled on one side.

'Inside the pudding box, Amanda has got gooseberries, apples,

'elderflowers and elderflower cordial, champagne,

'shortbread biscuits, ground almonds, gelatine and cloves.'

What are you going to do?

I've gone for an elderflower and champagne jelly,

which is hopefully setting in the fridge.

I've cooked off some gooseberries.

-Are they gooseberries?

-They are gooseberries, yes.

-Yes!

-With some elderflower syrup and a little bit of sugar.

-Yes!

-And I'm going to blend them up and make them into a bit of a cream.

-OK.

-I was guessing they were ground almonds.

-You are correct.

So I've gone for a flourless cake

with a bit of elderflower syrup in it as well.

And I'm thinking about maybe cooking off some of the apples

and putting them with it, sort of like an avant-garde cake tatin.

-I'm making it up as I go along!

-Sounds great!

One thing you didn't mention, we've got these wonderful elderflowers.

I was wondering about trying to do something with them with the cake,

but I'm not quite sure what to do.

-These are fabulous if you tempura them.

-OK.

-In a champagne batter.

-OK.

-Please help me.

-Help you?

-Sugar, OK? Sugar and flour, really.

-Got a tempura flour?

Well, you can use cornflour,

but you can get away with plain flour for this one.

Plain flour and then you can use some of this elderflower cordial.

Champagne.

You mix this together and you've now made a champagne tempura batter.

And if you take those elderflowers, take a hot pan with some oil in

-and just flash fry them, they're delicious.

-OK.

-And when they come out, sprinkle them with a bit of sugar.

-Awesome!

Now, desserts on MasterChef, did you ever do them?

I didn't do one pudding, I don't think.

No, I did do two French tarts and that's what I went out on,

as it were, so I was let down by two French tarts!

That's another story, that, Brian! Don't even go there!

I'm actually liking what I see with this dish, really.

The jelly could be fantastic,

particularly with the elderflower and the champagne

and the key to that really is making sure it's nice and sweet

so a touch of sugar as well,

but also you've got the cake and I like that combination.

How it's going to look on one plate, we'll wait and see.

Which one would you attempt to have a go at?

-I think I'd probably go for the global.

-Yeah?

Provincial French cooking your thing?

-Well, yes, it could be.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

'Anna's duck confit and apple tart are in the oven

'and looks like she'll be serving it

'with some sort of snail, lardon and petits pois concoction.'

I don't think Anna's going to take a trip to France any time soon, really.

'Meanwhile, Will's a bit stumped with the pomegranate.'

I've never actually cooked with pomegranate.

Do you know how to prepare it? I'll show you if you want.

Slice it in half and then all you do is basically hold it that way

-and whack it.

-Sweet!

'And Amanda's flourless cake has been in the oven for quite a while.'

-That's not overcooking, is it?

-I've put a foil hat on it so it doesn't cook any more.

-If you turn the oven down, it's usually better than a foil hat.

-I've done both.

-OK, you've done both.

Two and a half minutes to go.

OK, that's your lot. Stop cooking. Well done!

'Anna had to come up with a dish from the French-themed global box.'

Anna, how are you?

Yes.

Yes! Well, you don't need to blame me.

-Blame that chap over there, really.

-I have blamed Will.

Now, you got the global box.

French inspired, particularly Provence. What did you make?

I did a duck confit and I've done an apple tart

and the other thing...

Well, it's just a bit of a mixture of...French things.

THEY LAUGH

-Shall we have a taste then?

-Er, be my guest!

I'll cut the duck up.

Well, it's not bad.

I think the duck tastes OK, I think you've cooked the duck OK,

maybe just slightly over.

This cassoulet-type mixture is actually very tasty

and that's got a lovely caramel kick to it.

It tastes not bad, you know.

The tarte tatin is wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

It's got the right caramelisation, the right amount of cooking.

It cuts through the fattiness of the duck, it's great.

The cassoulet, you just suddenly threw everything in it.

But, for some reason, I don't know how,

it tastes not bad, really.

Put all these three ingredients together with the apple

and the duck and the cassoulet thing and that kind of works, really.

-Really, really well done! You should be very pleased.

-OK, I feel better.

-You surprised yourself.

-Thank you.

-Well done!

'Will chose to cook a dish from the vegetarian box.'

What did you make?

Well, I've roasted the vegetables, the aubergine and tomatoes.

I've made a tortilla flatbread, grilled the halloumi, made a hummus,

mixed in some mint and pomegranate with the Greek yoghurt

and thrown on a bit of rocket garnish for fun.

Shall we have a taste?

I think it's a lovely combination.

I think everything is beautifully cooked.

-I particularly like the aubergine and tomatoes.

-Yeah.

It tastes delicious.

-The flatbread has kind of worked. It does want brushing with butter.

-OK.

Or oil at the end, just to flavour it.

-For me, really, halloumi, this is my personal preference, one side.

-OK.

-Because when you cook it both sides, it kind of dries it out a little bit.

-OK.

Having said that, the hummus is perfect.

Nice flavour, you've got the right amount of lemon, garlic, olive oil.

-Yeah, it's a great touch, really. You can tell you cook vegetarian food a lot.

-Yeah.

The thing with that is textures and you've managed to achieve that.

-It's a great tasting plate of food so well done.

-Thanks.

-You were right to choose it.

'And, finally, Amanda had to create a dish from the pudding box.'

Now, Amanda, you got the pudding box.

-It wasn't your choice, but you did go, "Yes!"

-Yes.

-You didn't do that when you opened up the lid, though.

-No!

-It was a bit of a challenge, yeah.

-What did you make?

Well, I've attempted a champagne and elderflower jelly.

I've made a flourless cake with some of the elderflower syrup

using the ground almonds and some apples on the top.

I've deep-fried the elderflower flowers

and I made some cream with some of the gooseberries

that I cooked down in some sugar and elderflower syrup.

-So, shall we dive in?

-It has set lovely.

-Ooh!

-You see?

-It has set, not bad.

The jelly is not quite set, it's a bit subtle.

The apple's cooked quite nicely, that shines out.

The cake is rather like a kind of a Chelsea bun.

It's kind of rich and a little bit soggy.

But it kind of works.

First thing, I'm going to start with the jelly.

That is so close to being perfect.

So close! And that is because you didn't measure the gelatine.

It tastes fabulous and the combination of the cream

and the elderflower jelly works fantastically well

with the gooseberries, but the elderflower fritters are just superb.

-The flavours all really work together, so well done.

-Thank you.

Brian, have you had a good day?

It's been fantastic and I really take my hat off to these guys

because to do anything in 50 minutes, I know how hard it is

-and also I don't envy your job cos this last round is very close.

-Very, very close!

We've got three amazing dishes, I'll be honest with you, and you really did up your game.

You did really well in round one, but round two was really special.

And, on the basis of what I tasted, today's cook of the day is...

..Amanda.

-Thank you!

-Really well done. Congratulations!

-The flavour of that jelly was just spot on.

-Thank you!

That was pretty tough, pretty tough going. You get to win that.

-You pleased with that?

-I am pleased, yeah. Relieved it's all over!

-Relieved it's all over!

-I've had a great day. It's been great fun.

A good challenge, but I was so thrilled to win.

-Yeah, it's been great.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

-Brian, thanks for coming along.

-It's a pleasure.

-And that's all we've got time for today.

Join us next time where we meet three more brilliant home cooks,

more big celebrity names and more boxes of ingredients to cook with.

I'll see you again soon, by for now.

And if you'd like to have a go in the kitchen,

go to bbc.co.uk/dishup for easy recipes and tips.